//------------------------------//
// chapter 6 
// Story: At the precipice of truth 
// by The Drifting Bard 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 6: John Mclane syndrome




After a heavy morning of apple-bucking and heavy lifting, I hadn’t the strength in my legs to stand without wobbling. The rainbow blur zoomed in from a distance. 
The smell of brimstone filled the air. It was at that point I noticed it.
Not sure what I thought at that point. It was either ‘oh my god we’re all going to die’ or something which shouldn’t really be repeated. The dragon let out a roar of fire. 
While others ran, I stood ground. 

“Rainbow, you didn’t…” applejack looked at her menacingly as they ran.
Amongst the cacophony of screams and roars I could hear RD panicking, repeating the word sorry over and over again. The dragon looked at me for a moment. I simply smiled at it 
“you, little pony, move” it ordered. I stayed put. 
“Move, now” it demanded.
“No” I spat out. It roared at me, the sheer force of the roar sending my mane flying all over the place. I smacked it on the nose, the smile faded form my face to reveal a look of controlled rage “now you listen to me sunshine,” I said with a growl, “you think you can just waltz on down here, chase after my friends, give the ponies of ponyville the fright of their lives and then demand I move out of your way?” the dragon nodded his head. “You thought wrong, think yourself lucky that im in a good mood” 
The dragon had the audacity to laugh in my face “little pony, you think you can stop “me?” just then, Fluttershy had spotted the dragon, and used her stare. 
The dragon flicked her with its tail. 

Big mistake. The control had gone. 
I lashed out at the dragon, catching it straight in the left eye, bloodying its nose, ripping quite a few scales off.
“Trigger, stop” it was Fluttershy calling out to me. I suddenly looked at my hooves 
which were currently stained with dragon blood.
I took one look at the dragon. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” I said apologetically, tears running down my cheeks. Fluttershy watched as I ran to the evertree forest.

Finally arriving in the middle of the forest, I took to just collapsing there and then in a heap of anger.
I was angry at myself for not holding back. But the bastard hurt my friends.
I heard a quiet voice humming a tune. I heard the hoof steps draw closer and closer 
“oh my, did you get into a fight, come now your good friend Zecora will make it alright” the Zebra helped me up, and took me to her hut. Conveniently it was only a 5 minute walk. That’s when the pain settled in. I didn’t realize this at first but the dragon had fought back, leaving me with more cuts and bruises than an MMA fighter at the finals. Hearing a knock at the door, Zecora rushed to answer. “Don’t move or it will get worse, after all, a gift can also be a curse” 
she looked at me and noted my reaction. My eyes widened because if she knew what I once was, she had an uncertain advantage. A frantic pink maned pony was rambling about how I just saved Ponyville from a dragon attack, nearly blinding the dragon in the process “…and then he just took of in this direc…” 
she trailed of as she saw me lying there on the bed. “Fluttershy,” I said weakly “I didn’t want you to find me, not after…” 
I looked down; the claw marks on my body were enough to bring her to tears. “No it’s okay, you did what you had to do” I noticed her wings were in a brace. She trotted towards me.
Her eyes were red, tears forming in her eyes. “I just hate it when I get like that” I said softly to her “I’m sorry if I scared you more than the dragon did” I joked a bit to make light of the situation. 
“Its fine…” she trailed off once again, taking note of my injuries. “I don’t think I’ll be walking for a while,” I said nonchalantly. “But don’t worry” I tried to sugarcoat it “I’ll soon be back on my hooves” something was off; 
Zecora knew I was lying, but she played along for Fluttershys sake. “Im afraid that our friend needs his rest, but soon he will be back to his best” I mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to Zecora who glared at me as Fluttershy left. 
“I have never met a pony such as you, if you want my help you’ll cooperate too” 
Zecora spoke in her usual riddles and rhymes “fine, what do you want to know?” 
“The ingredients to that cocktail is needed, simply because pinkie pie pleaded” Zecora smiled 
“which one?” I asked, watching as Zecora held up a piece of paper in front of me. 
“Oh that’s okay, you can keep a copy too” she stared to dab some form of herbal paste onto my wounds.
“It’s- ow- an old recipe from where im from, -narg” she giggled for a moment before pulling a scale out from my back, I tried my best not to scream “it contains PIIIIIIINEapple! *ahem* pineapple juice, rum, Blue carucao which I was lucky to find, and cream of coconut” 
after that was scale was out, I felt the pain being relieved; as the bandages were applied I looked at her. 
“Thank you Zecora” I attempted to stand. But failed… miserably. “Looks like you’re stuck with me” 

It was pretty quiet at night, the moonlight flowing into the hut. The wind blowing ever so gently. You could hear the rustling of the leaves as they danced in the night, the stars dotting the sky ever so brightly.

I couldn’t sleep, so I just stared out of the window for what seemed like an eternity. The sunrise was slowly coming; the death of the night would be upon me. Letting out a sigh, I laid back down on the bed, glancing over to Zecora, who was sound asleep.

I attempted to walk that morning, noting that I was still a bit wobbly. I left a note saying thank you, leaving her a recipe for the enigma, another party favorite. I walked out to find a perfectly shaped branch to use as a walking stick. Dragging my self along, the severity of the damage caused by the dragon had settled in. the ponies were giving me a look, a look which was hard to describe. 
A look I was used to.
Twilight came running up to me “you’ve been summoned by the princesses” she stated, my eyes widened. “What day?” I enquired, not realizing the golden glint in the air “today” I watched as a golden chariot landed in front of us. 
I hoped that this was a simple meet and greet, but I knew I was bucking the wrong tree. Two ponies clamped cuffs onto me “you are under arrest” they stated.
“For what? Protecting the town?” they looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
“Just take me to the damn royalty for buck sakes” I said with the element of stress.
I sat on my flank, and zoned out on my way to canterlot. 

Another flash of memory had begun.

It was her.